Out of Alignment

If you have been in a leadership role or a management position for a certain amount of time, then you have had a conversation about the squeaky wheel. Everyone has had a conversation about how the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you aren’t familiar with the saying, the simplest way to explain it is that whoever is the loudest gets all the attention. In a perfect world you would spend most of your time with top performers and people who are showing a lot of potential. Instead, you always have someone who wants attention but probably isn’t going to be a future star. So, what do you do? This is where it gets a little tricky, you can’t be rude and tell them that they aren’t good enough to spend time with, so you need to spend some time with them. But what usually happens is that the outcome doesn’t equal the time spent. That is where I spent a lot of time thinking this week. If we always get put in a position to spend time with underperforming people, what is the cost? I love using car metaphors when I’m talking to someone. I think I do it because I can relate so much and most people have been in a situation where they had to do a car repair they weren’t ready for. About seven months ago, I bought a newer car. My main reason for buying it was that my old car had so many miles on it, and everything was starting to break down. The cost of repairing it and making sure I had another vehicle to drive to work was no longer worth not having a car payment. You know you have to do things when you own a car, you know you need to change the oil, change the filter and of course get gas. None of those things on their own will break the bank. But what happens if you don’t do those things? Getting the oil and filters changed out, that to me is like spending time with everyone on your team. Sometimes it’s inconvenient, but if you want to move forward, you must do it. What about something a little bit bigger? What about the tires on your car? We talked about the squeaky wheel, what happens if we give no attention to the squeaky wheel or if we give too much attention to it? If we give no attention to it, eventually it will blow up and cost us way more than if we had just spent time repairing it in the first place. That makes sense to me, you can have a person on your team who is a little high maintenance, if you just give them some attention so they don’t feel like they are completely ignored, you should be good. So, is it possible to give them too much attention? If I’m being honest, this is a mistake that I have made way too many times. Everything about the squeaky wheel screams urgent! They need attention and they need it now. You could be in the middle of an important conversation, and they will come and interrupt for something small. You walk away from the situation frustrated because they couldn’t read the room and see that what they needed wasn’t even important in the moment. In the end, what happens is that you spend so much time with that person, your team gets out of alignment. Production becomes second to drama. Being needy becomes a quicker way to get attention than being productive. Acting like something is urgent is better than something that is important. When we think about the perfect environment for a workplace we sometimes think of the word peace. We want it to be a place where people can come and just focus on work. In our minds people can’t do that if someone is making a lot of noise. So, we try and quiet them by spending time with them. In the end, we end up creating a whole lot of expensive damage. Have you ever driven a car that has bad alignment? When you first notice it, you take your hand off the wheel and watch how the car pulls to one side. After a few seconds, if you don’t put your hand on the wheel to steady it, you will end up hitting something or in a ditch on the side of the road. When you start to notice that things are out of alignment, you need to get your hands back on the wheel. You need to get back to the basics and focus on what matters. It’s ok to tell someone that right now isn’t the time. I may be in the minority with this one, but I do think it’s ok to spend most of your time with top producers. You can’t ignore anyone, and you still must be able to notice who has potential and spend time with them, but in the end, you can’t ignore the whole car to focus on one wheel.

Focus for the Week

Is anything out of alignment? Are you spending your time with the right people and on the right things? My focus this week is going to be where I spend my time. My priorities need to be clear and I need to make sure that my top people know how important they are to not only the organization, but to me!